The County Commission rejected an unusual request from the village of Royal Palm Beach for the commission to condemn a 50-foot-wide swath of privately-owned neighborhood land to help a development proposal beside State Road 7.

There was no public need for the county to use its eminent domain power to force residents along Pioneer Road to part with their land for a parking lot driveway, County Commissioner Jess Santamaria said.

“I see ‘public good’ being misrepresented when it’s really development good,” Santamaria said about the proposal. “It’s helping a developer improve their project at the expense of the community.”

Pebb Enterprises proposes to add to its line of shopping centers by building a commercial development at the southeastern corner of S.R. 7 and Pioneer Road, almost a mile south of Southern Boulevard.

Most traffic would flow into the property off of S.R. 7, passing over a small bridge to be built over the canal between the busy road and the site of the proposed shops.

But Pebb also proposed to add a driveway from their property onto Pioneer Road, close to the traffic-light controlled S.R. 7 intersection.

The idea was to allow visitors heading south after leaving the shop to use the intersection instead of trying to make a U-turn onto S.R. 7.

The problem is that the tree-covered property where the developers planned their parking lot cut through was owned by a more than 30-year-old neighborhood to the north, which had refused to part with the land. Residents said they were relying on the land to provide a buffer to encroaching development.

The property proposed for development is located in Royal Palm Beach, but the property needed for the road connection is outside the village limits.

Royal Palm Beach officials maintained that the developers’ proposed road connection was a better alternative to creating more U-Turns on S.R. 7 or sending traffic to a potential Pioneer Road connection farther east, located on the developer’s land.

“This request is really vital to regional mobility,” said Donaldson Hearing, who represents the development proposal. “This is about public safety.”

Residents countered that if the development backers were so concerned about traffic safety, they shouldn’t build.

Attorney Barry Belmuth, representing the Westwoods neighborhood, said there was no “clear public purpose” to justify the county using eminent domain to take the land. Eminent domain allows government to take private land for public use, while compensating the owners.

“This is not an appropriate use of the awesome power of eminent domain,” Belmuth said.

Royal Palm Beach allowing too much development to spread along S.R. 7 is the cause of the area’s “disastrous” traffic problems, according to Santamaria, a Royal Palm Beach resident whose district includes the proposed development.